This Year, DEMO Africa Will Visit Four New Cities On Its 15-Country Tour In Search Of Africa's Best Startups

The 6th edition of the main DEMO Africa startup showcase will take place on the 6th and 7th September 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

DEMO Africa offers startups from all over Africa a platform where they can meet VCs, investors, tech acquisition specialists, IT buyers and media from across the region and around the globe.

The main event will happen at the end of a series of 16 mini-DEMO Africa events, known as the 'Innovation Tour', that will take place in 15 countries, with Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Morocco taking part for the first time.

Other countries to host the innovation tours include Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The application portal for the 2017 edition of the startup launch event is now open, and startups have until April 30th to apply to launch at the Johannesburg showcase.

DEMO Africa is one of the flagship initiatives of [email protected]. It debuted in 2012 at the World Economic Forum for Africa in 2012, and has been held in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, with the aim of connecting some of the most innovative companies from African countries to the global ecosystem.

The Innovation Tours will take place from February to May, starting with Nairobi on the 7th of February, held in partnership with partner hubs and accelerators across the continent.

"We will be covering all the four corners of the continent and we have increased the number of countries that we will visit this year", said Eng. Martin Obuya, projects director at DEMO Africa.

The reason for expanding to Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and Morocco is that there has been a lot of innovation and entrepreneurship activities in these countries, and we hope to catalyze the ecosystems there in line with our mission. Eng. Martin Obuya, DEMO Africa projects director

During the Innovation Tours, the DEMO Africa team and partners will engage with technology startups to share the DEMO Africa vision, coach and mentor interested startups, as well as share tools that can help them build and grow their businesses. “We want to engage with startups in all the countries we visit,” said Mbugua Njihia, event director, at DEMO Africa.

In addition to the pitch competition to win a direct entry to launch at DEMO Africa, startups will be able to engage with the DEMO Africa team, mentors and coaches from partner organizations.

"This is a very good opportunity for startups to take advantage of the partner network created by DEMO Africa and its partners through the [email protected] partnership to create linkages and networks that can help grow their businesses", Mbugua continued.

Entry categories include Health, Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Entertainment, Energy and Logistics. Thirty companies will be selected to launch their products at the main event in September. The 30 will also receive mentorship and will attend a 2-day bootcamp in preparation for their launch and software and services worth more than US$150,000 each for the next three years.

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